Happy Weekend Y’all!
Another fun week at NEACA has come and gone. This week we learned more about salads, soups, peppers & tomatoes, potatoes, and building a menu based on what is around you. We finished the week off with an intro to eggs and dairy.
A highlight for me was definitely our Salad lab. We worked on some recipes that incorporated cooked and raw ingredients in a way I never would have thought of on my own. I was also able to develop my own little green salad concept and that was fun (See this post on my Sunshine Salad). I think after I graduate I would like to really focus on some recipe development. It is exciting for me to work with whole raw organic ingredients and to come up with some tasty combinations. I am sure all this new knowledge will really help me step out of my comfort zone and hopefully make some yummy recipes I can share with all of you.
Mr. Plate and I practically live solely off of soup during the winter months- we love soup! Ironically, soup day came with some challenges for me. I was working on a pretty basic tomato minestrone with pasta recipe and at the very end I didn’t read my recipe correctly and put in way too much pasta. . .resulted in a tasty pasta dish, but not soup-like. Ahhh well, you can’t win them all. I can blame it on mommy brains right? But really, I have had a hard time focusing a little the last few weeks and even though I’ve read my recipes a few times over in the moment I mix it up. Maybe because we have so many new recipes coming at us each day they get blurred together in my brain. Anyway, I am now working on triple-reading them. One last time the morning of the lab. . . my recipes will be like triple-washed salad greens. . .safe to consume ;).
Speaking of mommy brains, another highlight this week was Gnocchi making day! So even though making Gnocchi is a beautiful and age-old Italian art (maybe even back to ancient Roman times) I instantly thought, wow, these are kinda like fancy tator-tots. I bet kids would eat them up! Ha ha. . except for Little Plate who generally has a thing against potatoes. . .come on kiddo, your parents were raised in Idaho! I really did enjoy learning how to make homemade gnocchi and we each made our own batch and sauce so we were able to try a lot of variations. It was a fun process and is definitely going to be a family tradition starting now!
Another highlight this week was working with Chef Marko. He has a bit of a different and more free-style of teaching but I really enjoyed him and all of his tips and wisdom. He’s been a in this industry for 35 years and has a lot of experience. He had a day where we needed to work together to come up with a menu including an appetizer, entree, and dessert based on what we just had around in our kitchen. It was fun to let the wheels turn a bit. I’m grateful he takes the time off from his “day job” at Traavasa to work with us for a week.
Until Next Time!
Loves,
Ash
What’s Cookin’ Good Lookin’?
Make up the Menu Day with Chef Marko:
Yum!!
Food For Thought
It is incredibly fast and easy, not to mention way better for your health to make your own salad dressings? There is even a basic formula you can start with that will steer you in the right direction every time. It is the magic ratio of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. Add in some salt, pepper, garlic, maybe some onion and fresh herbs and you are well on your way to making some delicious and healthy salad dressings. ‘
Tips:
-Adding Mustard can enhance the flavor as well as act as a natural emulsifier which will help keep the oil and vinegar from separating.
-Depending on the vinegar you use, you might want to cut back just a bit on the oil within that 3:1 ratio.
-When tasting your Viniagrette use a piece of lettuce, not just a spoon. This will give you a more accurate idea of how the dressing will taste on your salad.